The final race of the Thailand Grand Pigeon Race, one of the world's prestigious one loft races, was held recently. It was a bird of the Belgian-Thai partnership Veulemans-Techavichian who won the tough race from Nongkai with an average velocity of 1,052 mpm, already the second win for Teerapol Techavichian after he won along side Jos Thoné.

A total of 607 pigeons in good condition participated in this final race that started in Nongkai, 530 km to the North East of Bangkok. The pigeons were released at 7.15 am in a good clear sky with a mild wind behind them. The birds didn’t hesitate at all to choose the right direction back home. Back in Bangkok, the spectators anticipated a fast race of 1,400 mpm given by the apparent strong NE wind of 15-30 km per hour.

They had yet to be informed that there was heavy rain from about 200 km to Bangkok. Despite the rising temperature in the afternoon, the enthusiastic and hopeful owners braved the heat waiting to see the return of their winged athletes. Not until two hours after the predicted arrival time, a lone blue-bar little hen rocketed low from the eastern side of the loft escaping the eyes of most people and ran straight into the loft. She was clocked at 15.38.47.20 pm making a speed of 1,052.0326 mpm. It took another twenty minutes for the second bird to arrive with a speed of 1,012.2102 mpm.

The first prize and Kings Cup winner, R17-11856, was entered by the Veulemans-Techavichian partnership. The father of this bird is full brother of 1st Ace Pigeon TGPR 2013 and descends from a cross between a son of Chris Hebberecht’s Hulky (via Jos Veulemans) and a granddaughter of Techavichian’s winner from 680 km & 744 km. Her mother was a product from Frans Bungenners’ B12-2169556 (via Jos Veulemans) when paired with another granddaughter of Techavichian’s 680 km & 744-km winner & 1st Ace Pigeons TGPR 2010. The first runner-up belonged to Harrie van Boxmeer, a long-time friend of Thailand’s pigeon racing circle. She was a dark-cheq hen with 75% blood from Mevr. Snellen & Zn strain and 25% Harrie’s own line of Koopman pigeon. The mother of this bird was a car winner in the Poland race. The third prize winner was a small blue hen ring number R17-05973 of Thongsuk Chuprachak, a descendent of his old Albert Monin and Marc Roosen strain.

First prize and King Cup winner, R17-11856

2nd prize winner in the final was a Harrie van Boxmeer bird

Third in this year's final was a bird from Thongsuk Chuprachak

It was noticeable that all top three winners were small hens. Foreign birds made their presence felt by securing the second place while Premier Stud Syndicate, set up in memory of our beloved Mike Cooney, led the British team winning the 8th position. Jassim led the Kuwait battalion again taking the 25th position. Chris Hebberecht, winner of the first TGPR race by his Home Alone’ had three of his four birds back starting with the 26th position.

The weather conditions didn’t bode well for fast pigeons such as the ones from Hardy Kruger / Oliver Eschenbery, Jos and Lars Vercammen and Team Bagillt - the defending Champion from last year. If the weather conditions would have been normal, all these names would surely have their full potential exercised. Nonetheless, the track records of their birds in previous races and training will be remembered and reflected in the auction prices.

In the ace bird competition, there were more than 30 candidates. Each of them has won two prizes within the first 15% in the two hot spot races. Since many fast birds did not make it in the final race, we finally had only five local birds that had won all three prizes. The King Cup winner was from TNC Group Rayong, a red hen R17-02016 with her record win of 11, 7, 31 positions and lowest coefficient of 109.3239. This hen also cleaned up all the pools. Second ACE bird belonged to Apichai Taechaubol R17- 09572 with her record of 47, 16, 45 and coefficient 267.3299. The third ACE bird was R17-05903 of Thongsuk Chuprachak with the record of 81, 92, 13, coefficient 499.9828.